The students strike back! Thousands of graduates join landmark legal action that could see top universities pay MILLIONS in compensation for lost learning due to industrial action and pandemic Zoom lectures
- Almost 20,000 have joined a landmark legal action could trigger more claims
- More universities could be drawn into it as students demand compensation
- Many successful claims would have a massive financial impact on universities
Top universities could be forced to pay millions of pounds in compensation to students for lost learning due to strikes and the pandemic, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Nearly 20,000 students have joined a landmark legal action that, if successful, could trigger a torrent of claims from anybody who attended university after 2018 seeking an average of £5,000 per person in compensation.
Eighteen universities, including University College London, Imperial College London and the Universities of Manchester and Leeds, have received legal letters notifying them of the lawsuit.
Further institutions are likely to be drawn into the case as more students demand compensation for lost teaching hours and enforced remote learning.
Eighteen universities, including University College London, Imperial College London and the Universities of Manchester and Leeds, have received legal letters notifying them of the lawsuit
The case against UCL, which delivered courses almost entirely online during the 2021 to 2022 academic year due to Covid, will be heard in the High Court in February. Cases against 17 other universities are set to follow.
A flood of successful claims would have a massive financial impact on universities, which draw most of their income from course fees. The Russell Group of top universities met on Friday to discuss the students’ case.
During the pandemic, universities increased their income as online lectures allowed them to cut costs. The 18 institutions facing claims saw their coffers boosted by more than £1 billion last year.
Universities are now pushing to make ‘blended learning’ – a mixture of learning from home and some in-person seminars – permanent with no reduction in the yearly £9,250 fee for an undergraduate.
Further institutions are likely to be drawn into the case as more students demand compensation for lost teaching hours and enforced remote learning
Students have also suffered from strike action by lecturers. Most universities have been affected, with 575,000 lost teaching hours in 2018 alone. And 70,000 members of the University and College Union voted last week to bring higher education to ‘a complete standstill’ again this year at 150 institutions.
The Student Group Claim is being handled by solicitors Asserson and Harcus Parker. Shimon Goldwater, partner at Asserson, said: ‘Universities promised students in-person tuition and access to facilities and other services in return for substantial fees. During strike action and the pandemic they failed to provide this but still expected to be paid in full.’
Ryan Dunleavy, partner at Harcus Parker, said wealthy universities pushed the financial impact of Covid and strikes onto their customers – the students – and with any other business customers would be entitled to a refund.
The case against UCL, which delivered courses almost entirely online during the 2021 to 2022 academic year due to Covid, will be heard in the High Court in February. Cases against 17 other universities are set to follow
‘Unlike the universities, a significant number of which increased their income over the pandemic period, students largely survived on limited financial means and loans,’ he said. ‘Despite this, universities generally took few steps to compensate students for the subpar services they delivered in these periods.’
A spokesman for Universities UK, representing 140 universities, said: ‘The pandemic threw two years of unprecedented challenge at the higher education sector and our students, and we are proud of how universities adapted. We are not able to comment on individual institutions or cases.’
Tia O’Donnell, 25, from London, studied fine art at Central Saint Martins, part of University of the Arts London, between 2018 and 2021 – with every year of her course affected by Covid, strikes, or both.
Ms O’Donnell was so frustrated by her ruined university experience that she staged a protest during her graduation ceremony, pinning a banner declaring ‘I want a refund to her’ to her gown as she collected her degree.
‘I wish I could say the four years I invested in Central Saint Martins were magical, however, my time at university felt very empty,’ she said. ‘The whole concept of university is to come out a much more confident and assertive person in who you are, and what your practice is, and I’ve walked away feeling like I’ve got hold of a fraudulent degree.’
Before joining the student group claim, she emailed the university Dean after handing in her final degree work asking for compensation for lost learning, but did not receive a response.
Ms O’Donnell said that ‘every unit’ of her course was affected by strikes and Covid, adding: ‘We were stripped of all of our resources and we were stripped of every opportunity that we expected when going to university. But then to go on strike and threaten not to mark our final year degree work because their pensions were cut was a real insult.’
David Hamon, 27, from Sevenoaks in Kent, studied for a master’s degree in international public policy at the prestigious University College London during the 2020-2021 academic year.
The one-year course cost Mr Hamon £14,160 and, despite assurances from the university that he would receive up to six hours of face-to-face teaching per week, all of his degree was taught online.
‘Despite government advice allowing students to return to campus, UCL decided not to do so – for the entire remainder of the year,’ he said. ‘It was such a stark contrast to the experience I had dreamed of having.’
Mr Hamon added: ‘A seminar about international politics is supposed to be about debate and exchange of views, but nobody was speaking… The format of a seminar just doesn’t work with Zoom.’
THE FULL LIST OF 18 UNIVERSITIES
1. Birmingham, University of
2. Bristol, University of
3. Cardiff University
4. City, University of London
5. Coventry University
6. Imperial College London
7. King’s College London
8. Leeds, University of
9. Liverpool, University of
10. London School of Economics and Political Science
11. Manchester, University of
12. Newcastle University
13. Nottingham, University of
14. Queen Mary University of London
15. Sheffield, University of
16. University College London
17. University of the Arts London
18. Warwick, University of
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